I have connected a PiBurn rotary to the dedicated rotary plug in our 100 Watt Blue & White laser. We have a switch on the front panel that turns off the Y and activates the rotary plug.
I have set the steps per rotation at 16000 (6400 steps x 2.5 PiBurn gear ratio) and set the roller diamter to 63.7.
I created the 10mm wide x 100mm long test rectangle per the PiBurn manual. I marked a tumbler with a start and end mark 100mm apart.
When I frame the job, it will make one complete rotation on the tumbler and continue to the end mark.
No matter what changes I make to the settings whether in machine settings or in rotary setup, nothing makes a difference on what the rotary does.
The only thing that will change what the rotary does is if I change the rectangle size to 10mm x 25.4mm and then it will move the 100mm from the start mark to the end mark on the tumbler
It will move left the 10mm then make one complete rotation of the entire tumbler and on to the end mark. Then it will move right the 10mm and rotate backwards back to the starting position and stop.
“Click the Test button to verify that the roller or chuck makes one full rotation, pauses, then returns.”
If this doesn’t present a solution, I guess we will have to go over the configuration in a little more detail.
The only thing I modified when I installed mine was the rotary information. At least to get it working.
Make sure you have saved a copy of the Ruida configuration before you go hacking around.
I have a few, couple for grbl controllers and a couple for the Ruida. One is the current settings for no rotary, the other is for the rotary.
When you get it up, slow things down… I have sometimes set my acceleration and speeds in the single digits. Probably the most dependable engraving for me has been a scan type, not a vector.
When using the test button on the rotary setup, the only way that I can get it to make one complete rotation and return is to change the roller diameter to .65" even though my rollers are 2.5"
If I change the roller diameter, it will make a change. If I change the steps, it does not make any change at all.
If I put a tumbler on it and change the roller diameter .92", I can get the tumbler to make one rotation. But even with that setting, If I frame the 10mm x 100mm rectangle, it still runs the same as it has from the beginning on the test rectangle. None of the changes made in rotary setup effect what the framing does.
That would indicate there is an issue with the actual motor. Steps or something is diffrernt.
You need to zero in on the supplied PiBurn motor and ensure it’s the same or can interface as your Y axes. I assume that’s what’s ‘switched’ on the console.
Might try setting the machine up for just the motor making one turn…
I believe the your machine is looking at 6400 steps/rotation of the motor. If you set it for the 6400 (no gear ratio) and the ‘motor’ does not turn one complete turn and return, that’s a problem.
I’m suspicious that the motor type might be an issue…
At this point, it’s pretty clear the steps/rotation is in question. You have a very nice machine, maybe the motor differ…?
Wish I knew more about stepper motor variations… to help guide you
I would like to thank you for the time and effort that you put into trying to find a resolution to our problem.
I am happy to report that it is now working correctly. I was totally out of options so I downloaded and installed the latest firmware from MW Lasers sight and that seems to have corrected things.
